Klarinet Archive - Posting 000045.txt from 2000/02

From: Neil Leupold <leupold_1@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Jelly doughnuts
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 21:47:36 -0500

--- "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com> wrote:

> Anyway, he told me that, given the way President
> Kennedy pronounced the sentence (bad German with
> a very heavy Massachusetts accent), a better
> translation would be "I am a jelly doughnut."
> This is probably not true, but more humorous
> than most urban legends.

It is, in fact, a true story and a correct translation
(one might argue that "jelly" is added to increase the
humor of the expression.) It wasn't Kennedy's pronun-
ciation that was problematic. His use of the indefin-
ite article "ein" -- intended to mean "a" -- changed
the meaning of the sentence. Had he left that word out,
the correct meaning would have been conveyed. Rien im-
plied that his gaff was intentional. That's where my
knowledge of the occurrence ends, but I've never heard
anywhere else that Kennedy intentionally misconstructed
the sentence for its humor effect. Then again, it's hard
to imagine that his speech-writers would have allowed
something like that by mistake. Either way, it's a
pretty funny story. :-)

-- Neil
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org